Tag Archives: application

Circuit Cellar’s January issue presents several microprocessor-based projects that provide useful tools and, in some cases, entertainment for their designers.

Our contributors’ articles in the Embedded Applications issue cover a hand-held PIC IDE, a real-time trailer-monitoring system, and a prize-winning upgrade to a multi-zone audio setup.

Jaromir Sukuba describes designing and building the PP4, a PIC-to-PIC IDE system for programming and debugging a Microchip Technology PIC18. His solar-powered,

The PP4 hand-held PIC-to-PIC programmer

portable computing device is built around a Digilent chipKIT Max32 development platform.

“While other popular solutions can overshadow this device with better UI and OS, none of them can work with 40 mW of power input and have fully in-house developed OS. They also lack PP4’s fun factor,” Sukuba says. “A friend of mine calls the device a ‘camel computer,’ meaning you can program your favorite PIC while riding a camel through endless deserts.”

Not interested in traveling (much less programming) atop a camel? Perhaps you prefer to cover long distances towing a comfortable RV? Dean Boman built his real-time trailer monitoring system after he experienced several RV trailer tire blowouts. “In every case, there were very subtle changes in the trailer handling in the minutes prior to the blowouts, but the changes were subtle enough to go unnoticed,” he says.

Boman’s system notices. Using accelerometers, sensors, and a custom-designed PCB with a Microchip Technology PIC18F2620 microcontroller, it continuously monitors each trailer tire’s vibration and axle temperature, displays that information, and sounds an alarm if a tire’s vibration is excessive. The driver can then pull over before a dangerous or trailer-damaging blowout.

But perhaps you’d rather not travel at all, just stay at home and listen to a little music? This issue includes Part 1 of Dave Erickson’s two-part series about upgrading his multi-zone home audio system with an STMicroelectronics STM32F100 microprocessor, an LCD, and real PC boards. His MCU-controlled, eight-zone analog sound system won second-place in a 2011 STMicroelectronics design contest.

In addition to these special projects, the January issue includes our columnists exploring a variety of EE topics and technologies.

Jeff Bachiochi considers RC and DC servomotors and outlines a control mechanism for a DC motor that emulates a DC servomotor’s function and strength. George Novacek explores system safety assessment, which offers a standard method to identify and mitigate hazards in a designed product.

Ed Nisley discusses a switch design that gives an Arduino Pro Mini board control over its own power supply. He describes “a simple MOSFET-based power switch that turns on with a push button and turns off under program control: the Arduino can shut itself off and reduce the battery drain to nearly zero.”

“This should be useful in other applications that require automatic shutoff, even if they’re not running from battery power,” Nisley adds.

Ayse K. Coskun discusses how 3-D chip stacking technology can improve energy efficiency. “3-D stacked systems can act as energy-efficiency boosters by putting together multiple chips (e.g., processors, DRAMs, other sensory layers, etc.) into a single chip,” she says. “Furthermore, they provide high-speed, high-bandwidth communication among the different layers.”

“I believe 3-D technology will be especially promising in the mobile domain,” she adds, “where the data access and processing requirements increase continuously, but the power constraints cannot be pushed much because of the physical and cost-related constraints.”

The Aardvark OEM Adapter is based on Total Phase’s Aardvark I2C/SPI USB-to-I2C adapter, which is a flexible tool for system design and testing. The new adapter is available in an I2C or SPI configuration and includes the Total Phase API, which enables you to create custom application GUIs.

The Aardvark OEM Adapter and API are cross-platform compatible with various OSes, including Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X. In a production environment, you can use the API for automated testing or device programming.

The LT3081 is a rugged 1.5-A wide input voltage range linear regulator with key usability, monitoring, and protection features. The device has an extended safe operating area (SOA) compared to existing regulators, making it well suited for high input-to-output voltage and high output current applications where older regulators limit the output.

The LT3081 uses a current source reference for single-resistor output voltage settings and output adjustability down to ”0.” A single resistor can be used to set the output current limit. This regulator architecture, combined with low-millivolt regulation, enables multiple ICs to be easily paralleled for heat spreading and higher output current. The current from the device’s current monitor can be summed with the set current for line-drop compensation, where the LT3081’s output increases with current to compensate for line drops.

The LT3081 achieves line and load regulation below 2 mV independent of output voltage and features a 1.2-to-40-V input voltage range. The device is well suited for applications requiring multiple rails. The output voltage is programmable with a single resistor from 0 to 38.5 V with a 1.2-V dropout. The on-chip trimmed 50-µA current reference is ±1% accurate. The regulation, transient response, and output noise (30 µVRMS) are independent of output voltage due to the device’s voltage follower architecture.

Two resistors are used to configure the LT3081 as a two-terminal current source. Input or output capacitors for stability are optional in either linear regulator or current-source operation mode. The LT3081 provides several monitoring and protection functions. A single resistor is used to program the current limit, which is accurate to ±10%. Monitor outputs provide a current output proportional to temperature (1 µA/°C) and output current (200 µA/A), enabling easy ground-based measurement. The current monitor can compensate for cable drops. The LT3081’s internal protection circuitry includes reverse-input protection, reverse-current protection, internal current limiting, and thermal shutdown.

A variety of grades/temperature ranges are offered including: the E and I grades (–40°C to 125°C), the H grade (–40°C to 150°C), and the high-reliability MP grade (–55°C to 50°C). Pricing for the E-grade starts at $2.60 each in 1,000-piece quantities.

Embedded Products/Services: The NetBurner solution provides hardware, software, and tools to network enable new and existing products. All components are integrated and fully functional, so you can immediately begin working on your application.

Product Categories:

Serial to Ethernet: Modules can be used out of the box with no programming, or you can use a development kit to create your own custom applications. Hardware ranges from a single chip to small modules with many features.

Core Modules: Typically used as the core processing module in a design, core modules include the processor, flash, RAM and on-board network capability. The processor pins are brought out to connectors and include functions such as SPI, I2C, address/data bus, ADC, DAC, UARTs, digital I/O, PWM, and CAN.

Development Kits: Development kits can be used to customize any of NetBurner’s Serial-to-Ethernet or Core Modules. Kits include the Eclipse IDE, a C/C++ compiler/linker, a debugger, a RTOS, a TCP/IP stack, and board support packages.

The PIC32MX3/4 32-bit microcontrollers are available in 64/16-, 256/64-, and 512/128-KB flash/RAM configurations. The microcontrollers are coupled with Microchip Technology’s software and tools for designs in connectivity, graphics, digital audio, and general-purpose embedded control.

The microcontrollers offer high RAM memory options and high peripheral integration at a low cost. They feature 28 10-bit ADCs, five UARTS, 105-DMIPS performance, serial peripherals, a graphic display, capacitive touch, connectivity, and digital audio support.
The PIC32MX3/4 microcontrollers are supported with general software development tools, including Microchip Technology’s MPLAB X integrated development environment (IDE) and the MPLAB XC32 C/C++ compiler.

Application-specific tools include the Microchip Graphics Display Designer X and the Microchip Graphics Library, which provide a visual design tool that enables quick and easy creation of graphical user interface (GUI) screens for applications. The microcontrollers are also supported with a set of Microchip’s protocol stacks including TCP/IP, USB Device and Host, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi. For digital audio applications, Microchip provides software for tasks such as sample rate conversion (SRC), audio codecs—including MP3 and Advanced Audio Coding (AAC), and software to connect smartphones and other personal electronic devices.

The PIC32MX3/4 family is supported by Microchip’s PIC32 USB Starter Kit III, which costs $59.99 and the PIC32MX450 100-pin USB plug-in module, which costs $25 for the modular Explorer 16 development system. Pricing for the PIC32MX3/4 microcontrollers starts at $2.50 each in 10,000-unit quantities.

Embedded Products/Services: SMX® RTOS is a modular Real Time Operating System designed to meet the needs of small to medium-size embedded systems. It offers these modules: Preemptive multitasking kernel, TCP/IP dual IPv4/IPv6, 802.11a/b/g/i/n WiFi, USB Host/Device/OTG, flash file systems, GUI, security, IEEE 754 floating point, and more. Each is a strong product on its own, and all are tightly integrated to work well together. It offers good support for the latest ARM, Cortex, and ColdFire processors. See www.smxrtos.com/rtos and www.smxrtos.com/processors.

SMX® RTOS offers a broad selection of middleware modules, optional protocols, and drivers for the latest embedded processors. All are tightly integrated and work well together, so you can spend your time developing your product rather than gathering components from all over the Internet and integrating them. All are strong products on their own. SMX comes with full source code and simple, unambiguous, royalty-free licensing. You are free to modify our products in any way you wish and need not return changes to us.

Embedded Products/Services: The NetBurner solution provides hardware, software, and tools to network enable new and existing products. All components are integrated and fully functional, so you can immediately begin working on your application.

Product Categories:

Serial to Ethernet: Modules can be used out of the box with no programming, or you can use a development kit to create your own custom applications. Hardware ranges from a single chip to small modules with many features.

Core Modules: Typically used as the core processing module in a design, core modules include the processor, flash, RAM and on-board network capability. The processor pins are brought out to connectors and include functions such as SPI, I2C, address/data bus, ADC, DAC, UARTs, digital I/O, PWM, and CAN.

Development Kits: Development kits can be used to customize any of NetBurner’s Serial-to-Ethernet or Core Modules. Kits include the Eclipse IDE, a C/C++ compiler/linker, a debugger, a RTOS, a TCP/IP stack, and board support packages.

Most Recent Embedded Tech-Related Acquisition: He recently received a single-board fanless PC with a solid-state hard drive as a gift.

Current Projects: Alex is further developing the NakedCPU platform he wrote about in his two-part article series, “The NakedCPU,” (Circuit Cellar 259–260, 2012).

Thoughts on the Future of Embedded Technology: Alex says he’s worried that embedded solutions are becoming less transparent. He remembers working with one system that had several DVDs of examples and libraries but it didn’t have a comprehensive guide to the system’s architecture. “As a researcher and someone who wants to get to the bottom of things, such a situation is frustrating. This is certainly my personal researcher’s view. I am not commenting on the application side of increasingly complicated embedded systems.”